№ 2 - 2005
Amogolonova D.D., Skrynnikova T.D.
The Space of the Ideological Discourse of Post-Soviet Buryatia

The article contains analysis of the spatial-temporal components of the ideological discourse of contemporary Buryatia. The authors demonstrate that the spatial and temporal ideologemes of the Buryat political discourse operate with the whole complex of ethnic characteristics (territory, language, religion). At that, the spatial and the temporal models are not separated from one another, but coexist in the unity of the postulated estimations: “within the limits — out of the limits”, “formerly — nowadays”. Speculatively affirming and legitimating the current confines of the ethnos, the spatial ideologemes are directly related with the history of the Mongols and with the civilizing impact of Buddhism, which, taken together, allow the bounds of the Buryats’ cultural affiliation to be expanded as to embrace the Central Asian region as a whole. At the same time, according to the authors’ conclusion, substantial implication of the discourse is not reduced to ethnic features and peculiarities proper; the pathos of ethno-ideology, to a large extent, implies constructing and retaining peripheral and limitrophe identity. Such peripheral characteristic and such limitropheness “compel” ethno-leaders to seek for particular values, the appeal to which, on the one hand, allows to mobilize ethnicity and, on the other, does not require infringing the established political boundaries and laws.